[Bill Cummings]

Hi Jim,
I've read all (lla) your posts forwards and backwards.
I've met and had dealings with Kamron Blevins. He is as honest as a decade is long.

Now I hope I don't give the impression that I'm a malcontent but Bob K. having broken
no rules in the U$hPA was kicked out for sounding the alarm. U$hPa shot the messenger.
To date they haven't stated one specific SOP or safety infraction. They just threw the book
at him as if to say, "It's within these pages - go look it up yourself!"
I am going to compose a letter to send to my two Region # 4 directors and U$hPA.
It will say something to the effect that I will pay the ransom of $150.00 if they ASK
Bob K to come back to U$hPA to enjoy full membership and benefits. (Sorry Rick M.)
They will also have to pull the ratings of a Torrey Glider Port instructor breaking SOP's.
My 38 years and 3 months of membership is set to run out at the end of this month.
But like I said, I'll pay the ransom if they do what's right.
I wish others would publicly follow me in this effort.
Jim, it's good to read you here.
EDIT CORRECTION I've been flying HG for that many years. I joined USHGA a few year later.

[reluctantsparrow]

Wow. Okay. thanks for bringing me up to speed you guys. Out of curiousity, My girlfriend (who finds the politics going on within our sport much more fascinating than late night TV) just looked up jack Axaopoulos for the fun of it, she found out he has a patent pending for a system and method for storing and searching buy and sell information of a marketplace, patent # 6286002 Hmm, yeah, sounds like he has the kind of skills needed to pull off hijacking links and such.
I am not going to test the hanggliding.org link change thing though. Rather not make a wave until I can make a big enough wave to ride that wave OVER the breakwater, if you get my drift.
Well, well, I just feel so right at home here. I surely do.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Along those same lines, I have been kicked off ParaglidingForum.com and OzReport.com for questioning the high death and accident rates from paragliding ...

There's been way too much banning in flight sport forums. Too many people with thick agendas and thin skins.

My girlfriend (who finds the politics going on within our sport much more fascinating than late night TV) ...

There's a lot of stuff going on out here in the real world that pretty much gets ignored these days because it doesn't have a catchy story line and a hot cast of actors. Good on your girlfriend for digging up the truth.[/quote]

Well, well, I just feel so right at home here. I surely do.

We're not the biggest, but we're trying to do something real. Unlike the "Jack and Davis Shows" we really want to give hang gliding pilots a choice in national associations. We also want to build a place where clubs and pilots can share resources on both the local and national level. The sport is too small to be spread across 50 or so club sites that aren't connected together. And USHPA is scared to death of an open forum where pilots can actually ask uncensored questions of USHPA's leadership. That's why they've never put one up.

By the way, your stories about your xc flights and the usefulness of wheels were superb. I was glued to the screen while reading them. Thanks.

[Bill Cummings]

By the way, your stories about your xc flights and the usefulness of wheels were superb. I was glued to the screen while reading them. Thanks.

Me too

[Bob Kuczewski]

I just checked the "Hot" button and found this wide range of discussions:

It's taken a few years, but we're finally starting to gain the "critical mass" to become a site worth reading.

Thanks to everyone who's joined and posted. This is your forum.

[eagle]

While We're Under the Hammer

~ We are the Hope ~

While Under a Threat.jpg (15.3 KiB) Viewed 6802 times

[Frank Colver]

Welcome RS (Jim).

I'm am late in this posting because I've been out of contact while enjoying a river that our congress took away from us 56 years ago when they spent lots of our money to build Glen Canyon dam and buried hundreds of miles of the Colorado River and its fantastic, unique, sandstone canyons. Thanks to the drought in the Southwest some of the river is back and 70 of us (including Dave Cronk) were celebrating by paddling a section that used to be under more than 100 feet of stagnate, still, trash filled, oil slimed, water.

But I digress, so again welcome Jim to the US Hawks. Maybe Hang gliding's original organization will have a resurrection (in the form of US Hawks) like the canyons of the Colorado.

Frank Colver

[AccipiterStriatus]

Just a brief hello from a new member here.
First flew a HG 1974, been active on and off since then.

Best regards to all,
Douglas in central PA.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Welcome aboard Douglas!!


 




 

 


It's great to have more members from the east coast!!

The South Central New York (SOCENNY) club is our first US Hawks chapter on the east coast. They're just a little bit north of PA across the border. If you've got a club (or are interested in starting one), we'd be happy to welcome it to the US Hawks family of clubs. Many (maybe most?) of our clubs are either dual USHPA/US Hawks chapters or have been in the past. So if that sounds good, just let us know.

Also, that's a great picture. Where was it taken?

[Bill Cummings]

Just a brief hello from a new member here.
First flew a HG 1974, been active on and off since then.

Best regards to all,
Douglas in central PA.

Welcome.
I was born in Latrobe PA and even though I always wanted to return to fly hang gliders in the area of my birth it never came to be.
About age three my mother dropped me.
The short flight to the kitchen in floor in Blairsville is the only air time I can claim in PA. Apparently the baggy cloth diapers of that era caught enough air to mitigate brain damage caused by the nose-in.
I'm convinced my love of flight started in the kitchen in Plairsville, PA. The impact for a while affected my ability to spell correctly but that doesn't seem to be a problem anymor.